Roomie Weekend and Thankfulness

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 

Lamentations 3:22-24

If you follow my Facebook, you know that yesterday was a crappy day. It wasn't really any particular thing that made it so terrible; it was a culmination of napless children, an obnoxious dog, overwhelming amounts of housework with insufficient time to complete it, post-baby hormones (can I still blame those?), and a brutal headache. 

I'm so thankful for for God's faithfulness and the fact that each morning is a do-over of sorts. I'm so thankful for Matt, who let me go to bed at 8:00 so I could "sleep off" my migraine while he thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and did laundry. I'm so thankful that the fires haven't hit our area (please pray for Central and East Texas!). I'm so thankful for healthy kids.

I'm so thankful.

We had a great Labor Day weekend with my college roomies and their families. I just love these girls, and I love that we still make it a priority to get together at least three times a year. It was Candace and Ricky's turn to host, so we left on Friday for Austin. 

After sitting in major traffic and doubling our anticipated travel time, we finally made it to their house. Candace is such an amazing hostess. Her house is always spotless and she serves the best food. I think I left 5 pounds heavier.

We took all the kids to a local splash park on Saturday and they had a blast. It was a gorgeous little park and only cost $1 to get in. I totally wish they'd build something like that near us.

The kids got some good naps in, and then the girls (and Ross!) went shopping at the Round Rock Outlets. I didn't have the budget to do too much shopping, but I did score two awesome pairs of shorts for Matt at the Gap, and I only spent $16 for both of them. Win.

We pretty much just hung out for the evening, but we couldn't resist snapping a few blackmail shots of the kids during bathtime. 

Sadly, this group picture was our best attempt.

Ricky's a youth pastor, and since their pastor was out of town, he got preaching duty on Sunday. He did such a great job on his sermon; it was fun to see him in a different role (you know, other than Matt's partner in crime). It was a little weird to go to church and not be in charge of anything. I kinda liked the break. The girls voted for lunch at Texas Roadhouse, so I got my rolls and peanut fix to hold me over for awhile. 

Tiff and Ross had to leave to go home after lunch, but the rest of us went back to the house so the kids could nap (goodness, so many of our plans seem to revolve around nap schedules these days!) and then Candace and I went for a quick outing to Kohl's and Starbucks. 

We left around dinner time and came home to a clean house and happy dog, thanks to Brenna and Emily, our fantastic housesitters (who even saved a few chocolate cookies for me!).

Monday was a daddy/daughter and mommy/son morning; Matt took Avery to play at the playground, and Landon went grocery shopping with me. We got to spend the evening with my family at my grandmother's house up in Denton. Since we were already up there, we got to check out my brother and sister-in-law's cute new place.

We did way too much driving, but we had a great time catching up with friends and family.

Last Weekend and Mother's Day Out

Yes, I am just now updating about our weekend. Yes, it is Thursday.

Sigh. I just cannot keep up these days. Oh well, now that it's almost time for another weekend, here's what we did for the last one...

Matt made me the best dessert ever on Friday night while we watched Friday Night Lights. Ignore the fact that it looks like poop. It was Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate Ice Cream drizzled with caramel sauce and topped with Nature Valley dark chocolate granola bars. YUM.

On Saturday, Matt and Avery had an errands/lunch date while Landon and I went to a ladies' luncheon at church. (Landon wasn't even the only boy there since his friend Tucker went, too!)

Avery gets to "car dance" with Daddy when she rides with him...

Saturday evening we went with the children's ministry from our church to the Ranger game. Um, it was hot.

See? We're sweating profusely. The game hadn't even started at this point.

We took a group of about 30, but I didn't post all the pictures of everybody since I'm not sure how they feel about their kids' pictures being out in cyberspace. Anyway, we had a blast despite the heat. Even if the Rangers lost. Boo.

On Sunday we went to church (um, it was one of the most stressful Sunday mornings I've had to deal with in awhile...), had lunch at my parents', Matt went to a praise team practice while the kids napped and I tried to finish Avery's nap mat, went to the prayer gathering at church, and then went out to Denny's for dinner with all the old people. :) I love pancakes.

And there you have it. Our weekend. Woohoo.

While I'm at it, take a look at this little cutie pie on her first day at Mother's Day Out. I finally finished her nap mat and will have a whole other post devoted entirely to that bad boy.

I'm done for real this time.

Landon: 3 Months

Landon hit the three month mark yesterday!

 

Sweet Landon, you're growing way too fast already!

• You're still a very big boy. I'm getting a little tired of people freaking out when I tell them that you're only three months old. In fact, now when people ask how old you are, I respond, "He's three months old, and yes he's a big boy." You're our little snuggle bug! I haven't weighed you since your last appointment, but you're over 17 pounds and wearing 9 month clothes, give or take. You can still wear quite a few 6 month outfits, but you also need 12 month sleepers because you're just so stinkin' tall! We have you in size 3 diapers, although you could probably get away with a size 2. 

• You eat every 2-3 hours, but you're finally starting to go 3 hours more consistently.

• You were sleeping through the night on a regular basis, but now it's hit or miss. Some nights you'll go to bed at 9 and wake up at 7, but other nights you'll wake up to eat once or twice. You are really good about going right back to sleep after you eat, so I'm at least thankful for that. Oh, and you've been in your own room for a few weeks now, although if you wake up in the middle of the night, you usually end up back in our room.

• You take two regular naps every day, usually in your Rock 'n Play. One is in the morning around 9 for an hour or two, and the other is anywhere from 3-5 hours right after I put Avery down for hers around 1. 

• You're still a smiler, especially in the morning when you wake up!

• You've started "talking" a lot this month. You're especially proficient at "goo" and "aah" :) Gotta start somewhere! 

• You've also started using your arms and legs like crazy! You reach out for your toys now, and you kick your feet all over the place whenever you get excited. You love being in your bouncer and on your activity mat; however, you still don't like to be on your tummy very much. 

• You're so laid-back, which has come in handy with all the running around we do! You're usually pretty content to hang out in your stroller when we're running errands, and you nap pretty flexibly, too. Hopefully once it cools off a little, I can start using your wrap more often so you can see more of the world! (Just for the record, this has been the hottest summer I remember in my entire life, so you have been a trooper since this is all you've ever known!)

We love you, Landon!

Mommy and Daddy

Friday Five

Every time I sit down to type this Landon wakes up prematurely from his nap (Avery hasn't even fallen asleep yet, but let's not go there), so I'm gonna try to get this out as fast as possible. Here are our five random items for the week:

1. We met up with Kari and Emma for breakfast at Chick-fil-a this morning because they were having storytime for the kids. Avery and Emma loved reading all the bug books with the librarian, and they paid attention and participated in the whole thing. I was so proud of my little two year old! We even got to go shopping afterward, and Avery and Emma entertained each other while Kari and I shopped. It was the perfect setup. Until Landon had enough and screamed his little lungs out while we were checking out at Target and Avery stepped in an ant pile in the parking lot. It was a very fun morning though, and I managed to score some awesome shoes and shorts for Matt (who's been hinting that he needs them for long enough), a back to "school" outfit and shoes for Avery, some onesies for my growing boy, soccer shorts for me, a cute broom for my kitchen, and a magnetic magazine file for my kitchen counter that I'd been eyeing for awhile and finally went on clearance. Hooray for pay day!

2. Last night was Meet the Teacher night at Avery's "school" (Mother's Day Out), and she loved her new classroom. Her class is all six kids from last year, plus some new ones, and her teachers both seem super sweet. Avery was especially excited to see a kitchen set and immediately asked where all the dishes were. I'm sure she'll love going back on Tuesday when all the toys are out!

3. After we got back from Meet the Teacher, I had to leave right away to go to a meeting at church, so I helped Matt get the kids out of the car, and right before I left I heard Matt say, "Uh oh." The words of doom. Avery's dresser had been invaded by ants. I had noticed a few ants in Landon's room and the kids' bathroom a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't find the sources, so I killed them and went on with my life. Apparently they got into Avery's room and made themselves at home in her two top drawers. Yikes. Poor Matt had to deal with it all by himself (at bedtime, to make matters worse). This dang heat is wretched. Even the ants don't want to stay outside!

4. So during nap time this week I've been working on Avery's nap mat for school. Um, this tutorial looked a little tough but do-able and super cute, so I went for it. And let's just say, that it is not really do-able. At least not for me and my beginner sewing capabilities.  Here is what my kitchen table looks like right now.

That's right, I can't even sew it on my sewing table because it is a massive pile of impossibility!! I had to move all my sewing stuff to the kitchen and now we're eating in the living room. Oy. Huge shoutout to my friend Rachel though. She is quite the little seamstress and just so happens to be making the same nap mat and came to my rescue via frantic phone call yesterday. I'm not gonna lie, I do feel better that she's having a hard time with it, too. Seriously though, you should check out her Etsy shop because she has some cute cute stuff there.

So I have until Tuesday. I will conquer this dumb project if it kills me. And it just might.

5. This weekend is a doozy. We wanted to go to Allison's preseason game in Ft. Worth tonight, but I just couldn't justify taking Landon out in that heat for two hours. We'll make it up this season though (I can't believe she's a senior and this is her last one!). I think we'll run some errands tonight and watch Friday Night Lights when the kids are in bed. Ah, we're such homebodies these days. Tomorrow I'm going to a Ladies' lunch thing at church and then we're taking a children's ministry trip to The Ballpark for the Mercy Me concert and Ranger game. Landon's staying with my parents (again with the heat!), so here's hoping he decides to take a bottle again. On Sunday I'm going to a baby shower and then we have the monthly prayer gathering thing at church.

Avery is still awake, and my head is nearly bald from pulling all of my hair out. Some days she makes me crazy. Happy weekend, y'all!

Life Lately

Well Matt's back to school (work, whatever), and we've finally started getting into a little routine around here. The kids have been so much fun this week, so I'm hoping we can keep that up for a little while. :)

I've been terrible about taking pictures lately, but here's a little update anyway.

Matt's parents came in town on Friday afternoon and stayed until Saturday evening. Avery was totally spoiled by all the NeNe and Pop Pop time, and Landon obviously loved the extra snuggles. We even got to go swimming on Friday night (granted, there's just not that much else that sounds appealing when it's five thousand degrees outside)! We were so glad they were able to come for a visit!

Haha, Landon looks like such a little old man here!

Landon and I went with Kendra to a baby shower on Saturday for my friend Katherine, who was in Little Women with us.  She's having a little girl in September! Of course I got no pictures.


On Saturday night, we went to a little soccer coaches' get together with my coaching friends. It was so much fun to see them, especially now that I feel like I belong again! Woohoo, did I mention that I'm excited to coach again?!?

This is my friend Jenny, who's married to a guy I used to coach with.

This week has been pretty uneventful. Avery starts back to Mother's Day Out next week, so I've been working on her napmat. That's right, I've actually made it back to my sewing machine! I've already made a couple of baby gifts, and I'm totally motivated to tackle some more projects. Ahh, it's nice to feel like myself again! It only took three months, lol.

We've pretty much been running lots of errands during the day, trying to get a decent nap schedule established (for both kids) in the afternoons, and then spending time as a family in the evenings. And then when the kids go to bed, Matt and I get sucked into the fictional world of Dillon, TX as we continue our Friday Night Lights marathon. I seriously love that show; we're halfway through season two. I actually think I'll miss it when we finish all five seasons. That's a little sad to admit. I promise we're not total couch potatoes!

Um, so it definitely needs to cool off around here. It is RIDICULOUSLY HOT and ifitdoesn'tstopsoonImightdie. Die! Ugh, it's so pitiful that I'm excited when it's only 98 degrees outside. I mean, COME ON. Enough with the 105s; we need to play outside!!

Okay, enough with the whining. I'm off to my sewing machine! Here's hoping that Landon will stay asleep long enough for me to finish this project.

Back to my Roots

Well, folks, it's official. I'm a soccer coach again!

God's kinda funny because if you would've told me five years ago that I'd be coaching for my old high school, I would've laughed in your face. I was helping my friend Kendra move into her classroom last week, and the high school principal (who was a teacher when I was there) told me they were looking for a girls' head coach and asked if I wanted to go talk to the athletic director (my old cross country coach).

Um, yes! While I don't miss teaching right now because I'm loving staying at home with my babies, I totally miss coaching. So as of today it's official! I'll be getting paid to spend my afternoons from October through January teaching (and sometimes playing) the greatest sport in the world.

It'll be a little different this time around because I'm used to assistant coaching in a high-quality program with six teams, and now I'll be building a one-team program with a lot of new players.

I'm ready for the challenge though; here's to new adventures!

Baby Must-Haves: Take 2

I wrote my first baby must-haves post when Avery was 3 months old, but I wanted to update the list now that we're in the infant stage again.

You really don't need that much stuff to take care of a baby. They need to be clothed, diapered, fed, and have some place to sleep; the other stuff is just nice to have. This list obviously changes as babies grow, but here's what we're loving these days:

• Aden + Anais blankets: Oh my gosh, I don't know why I just now found out about these. I love the material, and they're so ridiculously versatile. They can be used for swaddling (even with big babies!), burp cloths, car seat covers (when you're out and don't want everybody peeking in at your sleeping baby), or just as a regular blanket. Love. They're a little pricey for a blanket (the Target line is $30 for 4 blankets), but they're totally worth it.
 

• Fisher Price Rock 'n Play: Okay, so maybe this isn't a necessity, but it's definitely a nice bonus. Landon slept in this a lot the first month, and it works nicely as a portable nap bed when I take him to work with me at church.
 

• Burp cloths: We have a spitter. And when you have a spitter, you seriously can't have too many burp cloths. And hey, they can become cleaning rags when you don't need them for spit up anymore. Win. My favorites are the ones are the flannel-backed ones I sew from this tutorial.

• Breast pump
• Electric: I love my Medela Pump in Style Advanced dual electric pump. Love it. Breastfeeding is going really well. So well, in fact, that in the mornings I have to pump after Landon eats just to keep my boobs from exploding. (Nice visual, huh?) Even though I'm not going back to work (which was the reason I got this with Avery), it's already come in handy on multiple occasions, and I anticipate getting even more use out of it in the near future. I'm just glad Landon takes a bottle. :) 

• Manual: I got this Medela Harmony from the hospital when I had Avery, and I only used it a few times when I was nursing her, but this time around it has been a lifesaver (or at least a boob saver anyway) for times that I haven't had access to an electrical outlet. Let's just say I definitely used it in the bathroom stall at the Rangers game last month. It was an emergency, but ew. Not to worry though; I have since learned that they have a nursing area in their first aid room. Good to know, and thanks to Carissa for enlightening me! If you're not exclusively pumping or needing to pump at work, the manual pump might be a good option for you. 

• Breast pads: I learned my lesson the hard way when we were out in public and my shirt suddenly revealed two very lovely wet spots right on the boobies (again with the nice visuals, sorry!). Do NOT leave home without breast pads, y'all! Unless you're not nursing, in which case you would look silly with them. My favorites are the Nuk ultra thins because they don't come individually packaged (so wasteful!), they're the most comfortable, AND they're the cheapest. Wins all around.
• Medela Steam Bags: This might just be my favorite baby product. Cleaning bottles, pump parts, and pacifiers in the microwave in just a minute and a half? Yes, please!

• Lansinoh milk storage bags: I started out with the Medela ones with Avery, but the Lansinoh ones are much cheaper and can be frozen flat, which saves lots of freezer space.

• Pack 'n Play: They have so many fancy Pack 'n Plays now. What makes it a must-have for us is that we use it as a bassinet in our room. I love that it has a changing station on it, and it's so portable and handy for traveling.
• Kirkland's diapers and wipes: Yay for Costco! They win the diapers/wipes category for me. I've also heard good things about Amazon Mom, but this option is really convenient and affordable for us. (Plus the quality is my favorite.)
• Munchkin Diaper Bag Dispenser: I don't go anywhere without this attached to the diaper bag. It's perfect for nasty diaper changes in the car (um, I hate public changing tables), and it also works for clothes that have been spit up or pooped on.

• Snap 'n Go stroller: We didn't get one of these when Avery was a baby, but the travel system was just too much to lug around with two kids. The Snap 'n Go is so lightweight and is perfect for quick outings.

We also really love our Fisher Price bouncer, Carter's clothes, Graco Snugride 32 car seat, and Graco Sweet Peace Soother Swing. And we're huge advocates of Craigslist and garage sales for gently-used gear (just not car seats). Never pay full price!

I'm sure I've left something off of this list, but I hope it's helpful!